medicare payments to hospitals would be slashed by 5.6 billion. and custom and border patrol would lose $823 million. >> the point is to make it painful so they want to cut with a scalpel than a m machete. but it's not clear they will. >> bret: please join chris wallace for "fox news sunday" this weekend. he will have an exclusive interview with house speaker john boehner on the fiscal cliff negotiations. chris will talk to tim geithner. a "fox news sunday" you do not want to miss. check your local listings. consumer spending was down .2 of a percentage point in october. the dow finished ahead. the nasdaq lost two. europe's economy remains in the tank. 17 euro zone countries have a combined unemployment rate of 11.7%. that is the highest since the introduction of the common currency in 1999. 18.7 million people are out of work for the euro zone. pain and greece have jobless rates of more than 25%. back at home, the question of who will be the nation's top diplomat in president obama's second term continues to intersect with complaints about how th